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CMA Capitol Insight: April 9

April 09, 2012

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CMA Capitol Insight is a biweekly column by veteran journalist Greg Lucas, reporting on the inner workings of the state Legislature.

April 9

Is the conclusion of the Legislature’s spring recess. The agendas of committee hearings grow longer as lawmakers buckle down to the task of considering the more than 1,000 new bills introduced this year. Most action on the budget, which has a gap between revenues and spending commitments of at least $9 billion – an amount that could rise or fall based on this month’s tax returns -- won’t occur until after Gov. Jerry Brown presents his May revision in just over one month. At that time, the state sees if reality supports the revenue and spending projections made last fall to create the Governor’s spending plan introduced in January. Brown’s own department of finance says the year’s revenue (through February) is below estimates by nearly $680 million. The Legislative Analyst says it thinks Brown is sharply overestimating the amount of capital gains Californians will cash out this year, inflating his revenue estimates by $6.5 billion. A lot more will be known by the end of the month.

The State of California’s State of Health

Is pretty good. So says the Department of Public Health’s just released County Health Status Profiles, an annual publication coinciding with “National Public Health Week, which ended April 8. The 100-page tome measures how California and its 58 counties compare to goals established in the federal “Healthy People 2010,” aimed at, among other things, lowering deaths from various diseases, infant mortality and reducing teen pregnancies. (There’s now a “Healthy People 2020” set of goals as well.) Overall, California meets or exceeds most federal goals. For instance, state death rates for all types of cancers as well as lung, breast and prostate cancer specifically met 2010 federal goals. As to deaths from all types of cancers, 32 counties also met the federal goals. Statewide, California’s deaths from coronary heart disease, cerebrovascular disease and motor vehicle traffic crashes meet federal goals. Fifty-two counties also meet federal guidelines for number of deaths from coronary heart disease. Number of deaths in all categories had dropped since 2005. So have births from teenage mothers, down 14 percent from five years ago. Deaths from diabetes fell 11 percent and AIDS cases declined by more than 24 percent. However, Ron Chapman, M.D., M.P.H., the public health department’s director, notes in a release announcing the findings that, while the health of Californians is improving with the embrace of more healthier lifestyles and better nutrition, more needs to be done. Deaths from Alzheimer’s and suicide were up, for example.

Yin Yang

An intriguing example of the Eastern concept of the overarching unity of opposing forces can be found in California’s 2012 election year. At the same time a group that includes a sitting lawmaker is trying to qualify an initiative to create a “part-time” legislature and cut legislative pay from $95,291 per year to $1,500 per month there are still nearly 270 declared candidates for California’s 80 Assembly seats. Another 46 Californians seek the 20 state Senate seats that are also on the ballot.

Say that One More Time?

Among those nearly 270 declared candidates for the Assembly is Shannon Grove, a Bakersfield Republican. She is an incumbent lawmaker, first elected to the legislature in 2010. She is prominently featured on the website for the Citizen Legislature Initiative which, if it qualifies for the ballot and voters approve it, will allegedly “take back our state” from “career politicians.” At the center of the opening page is the slogan ”Bring ‘em home; cut their pay.” Grove says that California’s “experiment with a full-time, professional legislature has failed” and that the legislature, of which she is a full-time, fully salaried member, is dominated by “career politicians beholden to special interests.” Opponents of the measure routinely accuse Grove of a bit of hypocrisy. The campaign rhetoric in favor of a part-time legislature is remarkably similar to that used 22 years ago to encourage voters to approve Proposition 140. A Los Angeles Times article from October 17, 1990, quotes backers of the measure, which imposed what at the time were the country’s most restrictive limits on how long state legislators may serve – three two-years terms in the Assembly, two four-year terms in the Senate – as launching a “citizen’s campaign” to oust “career politicians.” Voters narrowly approved Proposition 140 and for more than two decades lawmakers have been subject to term limits, which, by definition, would seem to preclude the ability of someone becoming a “career politician,” at least at the statewide level. Although backers of the so-called “Citizen’s Legislature” have until July 2, to collect the necessary 807,615 valid signatures to place the measure before voters, the deadline to be included on this November’s ballot is June 28. And because local registrars have up to 38 working days to verify signatures, supporters would need to submit their petitions in early May.

We Had a Surplus

Michael Reagan, the oldest son of the former president and two-term governor of California is the chair of the part-time legislature effort. In support of the idea, he says “it’s hard for me to believe how things have deteriorated in California since the late 1960s. I can remember when Ronald Reagan was governor. We had a surplus. He actually gave money back to the people of California.” (So did Gov. George Deukmejian in the 1980s where the state had a surplus just as it did at the turn of this century.) In his memoirs, Reagan said he returned $5 billion to Californians, albeit most in the form of one-time rebate or rate cuts. Missing from the former president and his son’s recollection is the little matter of advocating – and signing -- the largest tax increase ever proposed by any U.S. governor in history.

The Sound of Concrete Cracking

Upon taking office in 1967, Reagan the Elder, who had pledged during the campaign that his feet were locked in concrete when it came to not raising taxes, inherited a budget deficit from Gov. Pat Brown that was so huge the GOP governor believed the level of spending cuts needed to close it would be crippling. Reagan subsequently endorsed a $1 billion tax increase, equal to one-third of state revenue at the time. It would be the same as a $17 billion tax increase today. The top income tax rate climbed from 7 percent to 10 percent. Sales taxes were increased from 3 percent to 5 percent. The bank and corporate tax rate went up from 5.5 percent to 7 percent. Taxes on cigarettes rose from 3 cents to 10 cents per pack. Taxes on distilled spirits were boosted from $1.50 to $2 per gallon. Even the inheritance tax was increased. Classic Reagan: Announcing the tax increase proposal at a press conference in front of the Capitol he said, "The sound you hear is the sound of concrete cracking." He also proposed subsequent tax increases in 1970 of which about half its provisions -- $508 million worth – were approved by lawmakers the following year. In 1972, the sales tax was bumped from 5 percent to 6 percent and bank and corporation taxes from 7.6 percent to 9 percent. That year’s package totaled $1.1 billion, some $12.5 billion in today’s dollars. All told, state revenues tripled from $2.9 billion in Reagan’s first fiscal year as governor to $8.6 billion in the fiscal year ending June 30, 1975, Reagan’s last.

Fun Footnote

Reagan chose a freshman Republican state senator to carry his massive 1967 tax increase. This same state senator was quoted much later by Lou Cannon, Reagan’s biographer, as saying "A lot of people, including me, thought (Reagan) would be ideological. We learned quickly that he was very practical." The freshman senator was future Gov. George Deukmejian who turns 84 this June.